British Rail Sandwich - Sandwich Recipe

Sandwich Recipe

In 2001, the National Railway Museum in York discovered a November 1971 document featuring sandwich recipes, issued by Director of Rail Catering Bill Currie. The document states its aim to make BR meals "the best on the track" and describes the precise amount of sandwich filling to be placed on the sandwich. The recipe also specifies, in order to make the sandwiches attractive – and to be able to tell what was inside – at least a third of the filling be placed in the centre, so that when cut diagonally, the customer would see the contents. For luncheon meat and sardines, the filling should total two-thirds of an ounce of meat. On an egg and cress sandwich, each sandwich was to contain one-twelfth of a punnet of cress. The document was featured in a 2002 exhibition of the National Railway Museum, "British Rail – A Moving Story". A typical ham sandwich would contain one slice of ham, another slice of ham would be folded in half and be placed diagonally over the first slice. When the sandwich was cut diagonally it would make it appear that it contained three slices of ham when in reality it only contained two.